17 Jan 2017

The processing of animal skins among Batswana and passing down the knowledge to their offspring dates to decades back.
With the technological advancement of today’s world, animal skins are still processed but in an easier and faster way.  

“Kings Leather Works is one of the major suppliers and sellers of a wide range of goods made from animal leather in the Boteti Sub- district, these products include sandals, belts, school shoes and traditional attires. They all come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours. The products are then sold to the Botswana Police Service, schools, Botswana Prisons Services and the Department of Wildlife.”

The owner of the company, Mr Onkabetse Thabo said this in an interview with BOPA. According to Thabo, the factory is able to produce 500 pairs of shoes in two weeks and the shoes sell at P200 VAT inclusive.  

While he basks in the glory of the company’s current success, Thabo mentions that it has not always been an easy road in terms of keeping the business door’s open.

Thabo started his production company back in 1994 and had it registered in 2004, his desire to start his own company came about from the support he got from customers because then he was fixing shoes.

He said that his first monetary support came from the Citizen Entrepreneurship Development Agency (CEDA) and the Financial Assistance Policy (FAP), the two organisations gave him close to P2 million  pula.

With this money Thabo said he was able to procure a supplier of leather in Durban, sowing machines and computers.

He added that he hired a few workers.

Mr Thabo stated that his greatest downfall was when the 2008 economic recession hit as the  business suffered a lot because the customers were no longer making personal requests to have leather products done for them and there were no tenders available to keep the business afloat.

According to Mr Thabo, all his employees left the company because he was not able to pay them as there was no money generated by the company.

Onkabetse Thabo mentioned that he also had a challenge of accounting since his computers have broken down; therefore it was tedious to do calculations as they used a small hand calculator. He also stated that they could not market themselves well because he cannot afford to hire someone with the expertise to do that.

Thabo said Kings Leather Works started to rise from the effects of the recession in 2015 because that was when he got tenders; he was able to pay all the debts created by the business including paying back the loans from CEDA and FAP.

He was also able to hire new employees who were trained in house on how to process animal skins, sew and how to operate the machinery.

Mr Thabo urged Batswana to recognise the potential the leather business has in growing the economy of the country because the nation cannot always rely only on the mining industry .

He also stated that small businesses should be workshopped often so that they are able to develop and improve their businesses to enable them to be competitive globally.  He appealed to members of parliament to motivate Batswana more on being self-driven to establish their own businesses and not wait for the government’s handouts. BOPA